Surrey: A man from Surrey helped to find a missing four-year-old girl from his bedroom 5,000 miles away after convincing her captor to reveal his location online through the promise of a free pizza.
Harry Brown, 21, tracked missing Yvette Henley to a hotel in Arizona where she was with her father, Virgil Henley, 28. Brown, from Staines, was Facebook friends with Henley after meeting him online and was contacted by Yvette’s grandparents who asked for his help.
The grandparents, Gary and Kim Forester, were granted custody of the four-year-old because a court found she was suffering “emotional damage” living with her father. Henley fled with the girl and was hiding in a motel until Brown managed to contact him and teased out his location by offering him free pizza.
He told the Mirror: “I spend my life on the internet but little did I know that talking to random people would lead to me finding this little girl.
“She is loving where she is now. I cried so much when I saw the photos of her with her grandparents.”
Yvette had been missing for three weeks following the court hearing, which was told the girl suffered “emotional damage”.
Police were unable to find any trace of father and daughter, leading to the grandparents launching their own investigation.
Yvette’s grandparents went through Henley’s Facebook friends to ask them for help finding him and the girl. Brown said he spoke to Henley for two days before he convinced him to reveal his exact location, which he then reported to the police who recovered the girl. She is now living with her grandparents in California.
Police in the US confirmed Yvette had been picked up by child protective services after a missing-person report had been filed.
Writing on Facebook, Forester, 46, paid tribute to Brown for his actions. “I battled every day with multiple local authorities who didn’t take me seriously,” he wrote. “Harry, all the way in London, England, was the only one who helped and found our Yvette. Harry will always be in our family’s hearts.”
He added he had invited Brown to the US to be “guest of honour” at their home and said: “Words can never express my gratitude for him ... Yvette is alive because of what he did for us!”
